Help me decide on what to do with my T105.

[zarahlin]

I received the Cruz Tablet 105 as a Christmas gift. It is not user friendly at all. I quickly discovered that I cannot play Youtube videos and any online videos for that matter. No flash to download? It seems I would have to become a computer programmer to understand how to make this tablet work. I don't understand much of what I'm reading here on how to install apps or hack the google marketplace, so can someone here help a dummie figure this out?

If there are step by step instructions on how to get youtube videos to work, please point me in the right direction. Or if you have a recommendation for a tablet that is user friendly in the same price range, please let me know. Thanks.

 

[pbrauer]

My recommendation? Run, don't walk back to Best Buy and exchange it for a Huawei S7. Same price, MUCH better overall tablet. Right now only runs 2.1, but the update is supposed to be coming.

Otherwise, there are lots of other tablets out there in different prices, but that Velocity is pretty to look at, but a total disaster IMHO.

 

[zarahlin]

Thanks, pbrauer, for the recommendation. Yes, the 105 is a nice looking tablet, BUT I find it rather heavy to hold after awhile. And, well, the other problems are just not worth the hassle to try and figure out. We do have the opportunity to return it to Best Buy, so I may just do that today.

 

[pbrauer]

Just a word of caution, you will most likely find plenty of naysayers about the Huawei, but since you are already here if you read through that forum you should find yourself pretty well informed on the status of that device (certainly more so that the Best Buy associates I would wager).

Good luck!

 

[zarahlin]

I just downloaded the skyfire browser and adobe flash and I'm able to view videos now; however, there are some quirks with the skyfire browser possibly because this T105 is a 2.0. Not sure.

 

[geekgirl70]

I just downloaded the skyfire browser and adobe flash and I'm able to view videos now; however, there are some quirks with the skyfire browser possibly because this T105 is a 2.0. Not sure.

I have the T103 and I downloaded the Skyfire browser yesterday. It worked... for about a minute... then it had a 'force close' and will no longer open videos. I uninstalled, reinstalled, rebooted... still no worky. Oh well. It was a good idea while it lasted.

 

[zarahlin]

I have the T103 and I downloaded the Skyfire browser yesterday. It worked... for about a minute... then it had a 'force close' and will no longer open videos. I uninstalled, reinstalled, rebooted... still no worky. Oh well. It was a good idea while it lasted.

Sorry to hear that, geekgirl. I ended up returning my T105 yesterday. I'll put the money towards the iPad which is what I've wanted ever since I laid eyes on it. The other Android tablets I looked at while I was at Best Buy were anywhere from $300 - $599, so why spend $599 on the 16GB Samsung Galaxy when I can have a 32GB iPad for the same price.

 

[geekgirl70]

Oh yeah, if I had that kind of money to drop on a Tablet, I would go with one of the higher end, just for fun (one that does not require a contract though!), but since I'm stuck in this price bracket, I'm pretty satisfied with what I have. After reading some of the reviews, I wish I had been able to get the Huawei S7 instead... but that wasn't an option. Oh well!

 

[zarahlin]

Geekgirl, I'm watching the video on the Coby 7" Tablet that is on sale right now for $199 on HSN. I read some good things about it here.

 

[Rwcrmd]

I have the T103 and I downloaded the Skyfire browser yesterday. It worked... for about a minute... then it had a 'force close' and will no longer open videos. I uninstalled, reinstalled, rebooted... still no worky. Oh well. It was a good idea while it lasted.

I had similar issues with my Cruz Tablet and Skyfire. Couple of things have worked for me. Tap the power button to turn Cruz Tablet screen off, then power back on after 5 seconds. The second is to bring up Astro file manager. Press the menu button to bring up the Applications Killer, then press Menu a second time to kill all apps. This seems to clear the memory. Skyfire usually works afterwards. I also downloaded a CPU monitor program, that shows how busy the CPU is. Just wait for it to calm down then proceed with your next selection.

 

[valenfor]

I also had success using Opera 4.2 with You Tube videos. Fortunately for me You Tube is not a necessity. I have seen a lot of app's that the CPU is the hang up for why they won't run (hence using Opera 4.2 instead of 5). It takes a few more taps' to use the interface compared to the standard browser.

 

[geekgirl70]

I also had success using Opera 4.2 with You Tube videos. Fortunately for me You Tube is not a necessity. I have seen a lot of app's that the CPU is the hang up for why they won't run (hence using Opera 4.2 instead of 5). It takes a few more taps' to use the interface compared to the standard browser.

Thanks for the ideas. I may try the Opera browser. Vids are not a 'necessity' for me either, but it's nice to be able to pull one up once in a while. I would love to know if the T103 is running at 800Mhz or not.

 

[rokky]

Sorry to hear that, geekgirl. I ended up returning my T105 yesterday. I'll put the money towards the iPad which is what I've wanted ever since I laid eyes on it. The other Android tablets I looked at while I was at Best Buy were anywhere from $300 - $599, so why spend $599 on the 16GB Samsung Galaxy when I can have a 32GB iPad for the same price.

Keep in mind the iPad will not play any Flash stuff on sites either (as you complained about the Cruz in your first post) - Steve Jobs declared war on Flash, and will not let Apple support it on any iOS devices such as the iPad. Despite my dislike of Apple's "walled garden" mentality, I do wish him luck in getting Flash "banned" from the Internet, but doubt it will happen considering how much it is used.

 

[RMskater]

Keep in mind the iPad will not play any Flash stuff on sites either (as you complained about the Cruz in your first post) - Steve Jobs declared war on Flash, and will not let Apple support it on any iOS devices such as the iPad. Despite my dislike of Apple's "walled garden" mentality, I do wish him luck in getting Flash "banned" from the Internet, but doubt it will happen considering how much it is used.

Ignorance is funny.

First off, he did not declare war on Flash. He stated that when Adobe is able to get a working, non-battery hog, non-CPU intensive mobile Flash going, he will consider it again.
Hasn't happened yet.

Second off, he is not trying to get it banned.
He's actually trying to get us evolved to HTML5.

Flash still has its uses, but HTML5 IS starting to look more and more attractive.

 

[rokky]

Ignorance is funny.

First off, he did not declare war on Flash. He stated that when Adobe is able to get a working, non-battery hog, non-CPU intensive mobile Flash going, he will consider it again.
Hasn't happened yet.

Second off, he is not trying to get it banned.
He's actually trying to get us evolved to HTML5.

Flash still has its uses, but HTML5 IS starting to look more and more attractive.

OK, OK - I will plead guilty to charges of hyperbole, but not ignorance. I was just trying to make a point for someone who might be having unrealistic expectations. Next time I will put quotes around "declared war", too (as I did with "banned").

(Probably something to do with my continual annoyance with Flash on Oracle's support site - learning to hate it with a passion, and hoping it will be "banned" ... )